| Gender: | Women's |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Dates: | May 13–29, 2016 |
| Teams: | 26 |
| Finalsfield: | Talen Energy Stadium |
| Finalscity: | Chester, PA |
| Champions: | North Carolina |
| Titlecount: | 2nd |
| Runnerup: | Maryland |
| Gamecount: | 19th |
| Mop: | Aly Messinger |
| Mopteam: | North Carolina |
The 2016 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship was the 35th annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of Division I NCAA women's college lacrosse. The semifinal and championship rounds were played at Talen Energy Stadium (the home of Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union) in Chester, Pennsylvania from May 27–29, 2016.[1] All other rounds were played at campus sites, usually at the home field of the higher-seeded team, from May 13–22.
All NCAA Division I women's lacrosse programs were eligible for this championship, and a total of 26 teams were invited to participate. 13 teams qualified automatically by winning their conference tournaments while the remaining 13 teams qualified at-large based on their regular season records.
| Seed | School | Conference | Berth type | RPI[2] | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland | Big Ten | Automatic | 1 | 19–0 | |
| 2 | Florida | Big East | Automatic | 3 | 18–1 | |
| 3 | North Carolina | ACC | Automatic | 2 | 16–2 | |
| 4 | Syracuse | ACC | At-large | 4 | 17–5 | |
| 5 | USC | MPSF | Automatic | 6 | 19–0 | |
| 6 | Notre Dame | ACC | At-large | 7 | 13–6 | |
| 7 | Penn | Ivy | At-large | 8 | 13–4 | |
| 8 | Cornell | Ivy | Automatic | 12 | 13–4 | |
| Boston College | ACC | At-large | 20 | 10–8 | ||
| Canisus | MAAC | Automatic | 33 | 13–6 | ||
| Duke | ACC | At-large | 18 | 10–8 | ||
| James Madison | CAA | At-large | 22 | 10–9 | ||
| Johns Hopkins | Independent | At-large | 24 | 10–7 | ||
| Louisville | ACC | At-large | 16 | 12–5 | ||
| Loyola (MD) | Patriot | Automatic | 14 | 14–5 | ||
| Massachusetts | Atlantic 10 | Automatic | 19 | 18–1 | ||
| Northwestern | Big Ten | At-large | 10 | 10–9 | ||
| Old Dominion | Atlantic Sun | Automatic | 35 | 16–3 | ||
| Penn State | Big Ten | At-large | 15 | 11–6 | ||
| Princeton | Ivy | At-large | 9 | 11–5 | ||
| Stanford | MPSF | At-large | 13 | 14–4 | ||
| Stony Brook | America East | Automatic | 11 | 16–3 | ||
| Towson | CAA | Automatic | 5 | 15–3 | ||
| Virginia | ACC | At-large | 17 | 9–8 | ||
| Wagner | NEC | Automatic | 58 | 10–8 | ||
| Winthrop | Big South | Automatic | 25 | 20–2 |